Epigrams
O ruthless, perilous, imperious hate,you can not thwartthe promptings of my soul,you can not weaken nay nor dominateLove that is mateless,Love the rite,the whole measure of being:would you crush with bondage?nay, you would love me notwere I your slave.
Torture me not with this or that or this,Love is my master,you his lesser self;while you are Love,I love you generously,be Eros,not a tyrannous, bitter mate:Love has no charmwhen Love is swept to earth:you’d make a lop-winged god,frozen and contrite,of god up-darting,winged for passionate flight.
Words in this poem
- ruthless a.
- Having no ruth; cruel; pitiless.
- imperious a.
- Commanding; ascendant; imperial; lordly; majestic. [L. imperiosus: cf. F. impérieux. See Imperial.]
- dominate v. t.
- To predominate over; to rule; to govern. [L. dominatus, p. p. of dominari to dominate, fr. dominus master, lord. See Dame, and cf. Domineer.]
- mateless a.
- Having no mate. [Cf. Matchless.]
- eros n.
- Love; the god of love; -- by earlier writers represented as one of the first and creative gods, by later writers as the son of Aphrodite, equivalent to the Latin god Cupid.
- tyrannous a.
- Tyrannical; arbitrary; unjustly severe; despotic. Sir P.
- contrite a.
- Thoroughly bruised or broken. [L. contritus bruised, p. p. of contrere to grind, bruise; con- + terere to rub, grind: cf. F. contrit See Trite.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Epigrams is in the public domain. This text is taken from Heliodora, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #62456; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: H.D., Epigrams, in Heliodora, and Other Poems (1924), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #62456, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hd-heliodora/epigrams.html, id L24311.
Form and metre
Epigrams is 23 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 A--A------ hateA · thwart · soul · dominateA · mateless · rite · being · bondage · not · slave
- 2 ----------A-A this · master · self · love · generously · eros · mate · charm · earth · god · contriteA · darting · flightA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| O ruthless, perilous, imperious hate, | 11 | ·/˘/˘˘˘/˘˘· |
| you can not thwart | 4 | ···· |
| the promptings of my soul, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| you can not weaken nay nor dominate | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Love that is mateless, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Love the rite, | 3 | ··· |
| the whole measure of being: | 7 | ··/˘·/˘ |
| would you crush with bondage? | 6 | ····/˘ |
| nay, you would love me not | 6 | ······ |
| were I your slave. | 4 | ···· |
| Torture me not with this or that or this, | 10 | /˘········ |
| Love is my master, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| you his lesser self; | 5 | ··/˘· |
| while you are Love, | 4 | ···· |
| I love you generously, | 7 | ···/˘˘˘ |
| be Eros, | 3 | ·/˘ |
| not a tyrannous, bitter mate: | 8 | ··/˘˘/˘· |
| Love has no charm | 4 | ···· |
| when Love is swept to earth: | 6 | ······ |
| you’d make a lop-winged god, | 6 | ······ |
| frozen and contrite, | 5 | /˘·˘/ |
| of god up-darting, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| winged for passionate flight. | 6 | ··/˘˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.